I think a garage is a must for two reasons I learned from my first board:

1) Foam dust goes frikkin everywhere!!!!

2) The better the quality of light you use the better your shaping will be. If the light is inconsistent and stronger from certain angles (e.g. window, plus lamp, plus ceiling light) it can be difficult to really see the subtle topography of the blank and the left-to-right differences.

I also learned, if you're going to glass it yourself you bloody better want a powertool for the sanding. I tried hand sanding and it was the most painful and laborious process I have ever tried and after spending a while trying I went running around like a madman to find any sort of power sander that will do the trick. You can buy a pretty good one for reasonably cheap and its a super investment in my opinion.

My other piece of advice is to use UV cure resin. Most of my f#$% ups were purely due to being rushed plus trying to figure out what I was supposed to do at the same time. Use UV, take your time, think it through, make sure you're happy with it and then flash it to set it. Easy. You can surf it the next day too rather than the painful curing time required.

Im under a house, I set up tarps for walls, have one side light which I set up on two poles, then a 8 foot of wood with two 4 foot lights on it, it needs a better baton on the top so it throws a better shadow. I have a 4 foot long double flouro for a top light.

I use a power planer for skimming,

sandpaper on 20 inch bit of wood, different grades, glued onto to wood. This is great for sanding a board dead flat and getting rid of any high spots, good shapers can do it with a planner, but I aimt a good shaper so I only use the electic planner for the basics

ozito sander polisher which is beautiful to use, great for backyarder and cost bugger all

a painters brush for fences which I use to apply filler coats.

a few screens for the rails,

3mm tape, tried the cheap stuff and its just no good.

a handsaw for cutting the outline

a jig saw for cutting templates

small surefoam and large surefoam, its surprising that I use em both on a board, but if I was going to only buy one I would buy the large one, ask other people though

screens, wet and dry, and diggerent grades of papers

stands in buckets

lots of off cuts of foam I collected from the foam place next door to my shap and im going to make some differnt sanding pads with them

I meed to make some shlves to stack blanks on

Ive been collecting snapped surfboards for 2 years to pratice on, I strongly suggest that as any start is a good start and its relaxing, all my channels so far have been cut on snapped surfboards, plus you can pratice you planning techniques on them before hitting a proper blank

Where do you live, someone out there may be able to suggest somewhere close to get stuff.

The main thing is be very patient, pratice heaps, have fun, it becomes addictive I tell ya

Oh yeah, i have a small planner to cut the stringer down on, but I struggle to get the stringer down around the nose.

Im under a house, I set up tarps for walls, have one side light which I set up on two poles, then a 8 foot of wood with two 4 foot lights on it, it needs a better baton on the top so it throws a better shadow. I have a 4 foot long double flouro for a top light.

I use a power planer for skimming,

sandpaper on 20 inch bit of wood, different grades, glued onto to wood. This is great for sanding a board dead flat and getting rid of any high spots, good shapers can do it with a planner, but I aimt a good shaper so I only use the electic planner for the basics

ozito sander polisher which is beautiful to use, great for backyarder and cost bugger all

a painters brush for fences which I use to apply filler coats.

a few screens for the rails,

3mm tape, tried the cheap stuff and its just no good.

a handsaw for cutting the outline

a jig saw for cutting templates

small surefoam and large surefoam, its surprising that I use em both on a board, but if I was going to only buy one I would buy the large one, ask other people though

screens, wet and dry, and diggerent grades of papers

stands in buckets

lots of off cuts of foam I collected from the foam place next door to my shap and im going to make some differnt sanding pads with them

I meed to make some shlves to stack blanks on

Ive been collecting snapped surfboards for 2 years to pratice on, I strongly suggest that as any start is a good start and its relaxing, all my channels so far have been cut on snapped surfboards, plus you can pratice you planning techniques on them before hitting a proper blank

Where do you live, someone out there may be able to suggest somewhere close to get stuff.

The main thing is be very patient, pratice heaps, have fun, it becomes addictive I tell ya

Oh yeah, i have a small planner to cut the stringer down on, but I struggle to get the stringer down around the nose.

All of the above - and I've done my last two on the back deck with tarps up. Doesn't make me very popular - but hey, its one of my pleasures/passions like the other addicts.
Now I'm older so here's some dims in inches. As Digger said a block of wood with various sandpapers etc stuck on. I use too a strip/plank of MDF - that 20inches long or shorter id you wish that 4 inches wide - just wide enough to take sandpaper of a roll and 1/4 of an inch thick. This way it has some bend and flex and can be used to take long sweeps down outline cut outs or rails or deck or bottom.
The solid block works good too - I used a wooden cement float as it has a handle and you can stretch and pin the sandpaper on the top sides if you aint keen on gluing.
Calipers (no not for we disbaled fools that think we can shape) - again cut out of ply or MDF. I used two wooden coathangers for my first attempt 40 years ago

yup, Ive got a set of homemade calipers made out of mdf as well, I reckon its a must for shaping. I use them heaps, it would be a real luxury to have a great set of digital calipers but cant justify wasting the money

scissors, nobody has mentioned scissors, you need a bloody sharp pair of scissors, all metal scissors are ideal, easier to clean. I have two pairs, one pair are a very old pair of sewing siccors, all metal, with a bolt joining the two pieces, scored them off the missus as she dont sew and they were her grandmas, I have to pull them apart and sharpen both blades to as sharp as possible, will use those to cut the glass. The other pair are cheap pair, I want to replace them with all metal ones, I use them to cut the strands off the glass after wetting down the laps before I tuck, just trying to be clean and neat. With plastic handle scissors they are not as easy to clean after messy work because im pretty bloody messy at this stage.

Mate its taken me ages to build up all this stuff, I got bits as I go, you can get away with a lot less than what Ive got, and im sure I aint got much compared to the guys who do this for a living.

For your first board just get the pure basics, ric hit the nail on the head, if you fall in love with the hobby then build up your tools.

Another good thing to have is a set square to get your outline dead flat on both the top and bottom.

I have stolen my missus quilting ruler to help me measure things, but that is a luxury, you can get away with just a tape in inches and centermeters. One day I will learn to spell

I already have a little block of off-cut foam from the home-shaped board I made that you can use for a hand-plane Matt. Its already shaped in a hand-plane outline but thats all I've done. No foil, rocker, bottom contours, rails, etc. Just a block of stringered foam in the shape of a hand-plane.

You'd be surprised how little you need. Of course, you'll want to add more as you go, but for the first, just get the basics. Im going out on a limb, and saying that a planer is a handy tool. Its hard to get used to, but it will cut a much cleaner line than by hand, and takes a lot less time. Even a wobbly planing job ( like mine!! ) will be more flowing than by hand, and your shoulders will thankyou for it.

All depends on your blank. Pick the blank closest to your finished board. The less foam you have to take off the better. I grabbed a Marko EPS blank from byrne, and the shape is so close to what im shaping i'll only need a few runs with a planer. Gold!!.

Feel free to ask more questions, everyone here is helpful!

we are the angry mob
We read the papers everyday
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we're also easily swayed

Beerfan wrote:That sutpid little face is where i wrote "surprised". Weird!

Fixed I hope. You should be able to write surprised now.

I curse their head & all the hairs of their head; I curse their face, their brain, their mouth, their nose, their tongue, their teeth, their forehead, their shoulders, their breast, their heart, their stomach, their back, their womb, their arms, their legs, their hands, their feet & all their body, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, before and behind, within and without

shaped my first board on Mums kitchen chairs in the backyard, used her knives and a few bits of sand paper and a rusty old saw....was bloody rough as you can imagine but my neighbour spotted me doing it and bought the shaped blank off me for $60, blank was from an old single fin I stripped glass off.....backyarders rule, so much fun and opportunity to shape anything you want ...

I don't know roof racks and a blank would go too well. Inside your car for sure. Byrne in wollongong has Marko EPS blanks, and surfblanks in brookevale has PU blanks ( CnuT of a drive though ).

How much resin?. Shit, you wanna have more than you need, so short ( under 7' ), probably a litre of lam either side. Probably a litre each side for hotcoat ( filler resin ). This is too much, but on your first ( in my case first few!! ) i prefer to have too much rather than not enough. Plus you need extra for plugs/dings etc.

Yeah lam for the lamination, and filler resin for the hotcoat/filler coat. Don't worry about gloss yet.

UV resin is heaven. Take your time, get it as good as you can, then bring it into the sun. Im keen to try epoxy too, have heard its user friendly, but can't say for sure yet.

we are the angry mob
We read the papers everyday
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we're also easily swayed

Because you're a big bloke and coming back from serious injury, keep it thick n chunky. If it gets you back in the water quicker coz you can build up the basics and fitness again, you won't care that she's a chunky beast!. Its a pretty wide thick blank, which will suck when shaping, but hey, good practice mate. Thickness in the middle won't matter too much, but it will be hard to blend the rails out to a reasonable thickness. Keep the bottom flat. Just plan each step, draw guides on the blank in pencil, and it'll work fine. Keep us updated

Dunno if you have a template, but go to bunnings, grab some 3mm mdf, and then go to the isle with all the wooden cornice etc, and grab a 12mm wide x 3mm thick x 2.4m long timber strip ( i think mine is tassie oak? ). Stuffed if i know what its used for, but makes really nice curves on the mdf haha, flexy, but holds a curve

we are the angry mob
We read the papers everyday
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we're also easily swayed

I curse their head & all the hairs of their head; I curse their face, their brain, their mouth, their nose, their tongue, their teeth, their forehead, their shoulders, their breast, their heart, their stomach, their back, their womb, their arms, their legs, their hands, their feet & all their body, from the top of their head to the soles of their feet, before and behind, within and without